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3 June 202523 minute read

Major changes proposed to national direction under the Resource Management Act 1991 – what you need to know

On 29 May 2025 the Government began public consultation on proposed changes to national direction under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). The proposed changes are broad and wide ranging, with amendments to 12 instruments and four new instruments.

Consultation opened for three packages of changes:

  • Package 1: Infrastructure and development
  • Package 2: Primary sector
  • Package 3: Freshwater

A fourth package “Going for Housing Growth” will open for consultation in early June.

This update summarises the key changes proposed to national direction in each of the three packages now open for consultation.

 

Package 1: Infrastructure and development

New National Policy Statement for Infrastructure

Package 1 includes a proposal for new a National Policy Statement for Infrastructure (NPS-I) that will provide:

  • consistent definitions to support the proposed policies
  • an objective setting out a range of infrastructure outcomes expected from the resource management system
  • general policies to better enable and protect infrastructure, while managing its effects on various environments, and recognising and providing for Māori rights and interests
  • policies on managing the interface between infrastructure and other activities
  • policies to enable infrastructure while managing its effects on the environment.

What you need to know. It will:

  • Cover energy (except where covered by other NPSs), three waters, transport networks and asset, social infrastructure (eg. hospitals, emergency services, defence and corrections facilities), parks, resource recovery or waste disposal facilities, and “green” infrastructure that delivers flood management services.
  • Apply to all RMA decisions affecting the operation, maintenance, renewal and upgrade of existing infrastructure, and to development of new infrastructure.
  • Require decision-makers to recognise and provide for the benefits of infrastructure, and the functional need or operational need of infrastructure to locate in particular environments.
  • Include requirements for addressing the long timeframes and costs of consenting infrastructure projects are proposed.
  • Set national requirements for providing for Māori interests.
  • Provide nationally consistent direction for assessing and managing adverse effects of infrastructure on the environment and aims to manage the tensions between providing long-term certainty for infrastructure services and providing for compatible housing and other development.

New National Policy Statement for Natural Hazards

Package 1 also include a proposal for a new National Policy Statement for Natural Hazards (NPS-NH) with the objective of focusing on the outcome anticipated for natural hazard risk management.

What you need to know. It will:

  • Apply to seven hazards, namely, flooding, landslips, coastal erosion, coastal inundation, active faults, liquefaction and tsunami.
  • Require local authorities to:
  • take a risk-based approach to natural hazard risk of new subdivision, use and development in all environments and zones.
  • take a proportionate approach to natural hazard risk.
  • use best available information in assessing natural hazard risk.
  • Require local authorities to consider the following matters:
    • the likelihood of a natural hazard event occurring
    • the consequences of a natural hazard event for the activity being assessed
    • existing and proposed mitigation measures
    • residual risk
    • potential impacts of climate change on natural hazards at least 100 years into the future
  • Include a definition of "significant risks from natural hazards" for the purposes of the NPS-NH and a matrix that identifies levels of natural hazard risk using combinations of defined likelihood levels and levels of consequence. The aim is to provide standardised language/definitions
  • Be immediately relevant to the assessment of resource consent applications and to plan changes, however, there is intended to be no short-term requirement for comprehensive plan changes to give effect to the proposed NPS-NH in existing district or regional plans (to minimise the implementation burden on councils)
  • Be a first step towards more comprehensive national direction for natural hazards in the future

New National Environmental Standards for Granny Flats (Minor Residential Units)

A new National Environmental Standard for Granny Flats (Minor Residential Units) (NES-GF) is proposed to support the development of granny flats (minor residential units) in identified areas.

The intent of NES-GF is to enable one small, detached, self-contained, single-storey house (minor residential unit) per site for residential use as a permitted activity (as set out in the Planning Standards definition of 'minor residential unit').

What you need to know. It will:

  • Impose standards related to max floor area, number of units (1), max building coverage per site, and setbacks from boundaries and principle units.
  • Apply to residential, rural, mixed-use and Māori-purpose zones, where specified permitted activity standards are met.
  • Allow district plan standards to be more lenient than those in the NES-GF.
  • Apply existing district plan rules where a development does not meet one or more of the specified permitted activity standards in the NES-GF.
  • Include a new schedule to the Building Act 2004 to provide a building consent exemption for granny flats up to 60 square metres, subject to a set of conditions, and associated changes will also be made to the Local Government Act 2002.1

New National Environmental Standards for Papakāinga

The Government is proposing new National Environmental Standards for Papakāinga (NES-P) to permit limited scale papakāinga development (up to 10 homes) on certain types of land in rural zones, residential zones and Māori-purpose zones.

What you need to know. It will:

  • Apply to Māori freehold land, Māori customary land, Māori reservations and reserves, former land that was compulsorily converted under the Māori Affairs Amendment Act 1967 and returned land taken for public works.
  • Permit non-residential activities ancillary to the residential activities of the papakāinga (eg. limited commercial activities).
  • Include standards relating to building coverage and setbacks from boundaries depending on the zone.
  • Provide that where permitted activity standards are not met, 11-30 residential units are proposed, or proposal relates to Treaty settlement land, it will be a restricted discretionary activity.
  • Provide for all other (larger) Papakāinga to be discretionary.

Changes to National Policy Statement on Electricity Transmission and National Environment Standards for Electricity Network Activities

Changes are proposed to amend the existing National Policy Statement on Electricity Transmission (NPS-ET) to broaden its scope to include electricity distribution in addition to electricity transmission. Its name would be changed to the National Policy Statement for Electricity Networks (NPS-EN) accordingly.

What you need to know about the key changes to the NPS-EN. It will:

  • Change the NPS-EN objective to recognise and provide for the national significance and benefits of the electricity and electricity distribution networks as follows:

The EN is developed, operated, maintained, upgraded, and protected in a manner that:

a) recognises and provides for its national significance;

b) secures the resilience of the EN, including in relation to the effects of natural hazards and climate change;

c) provides for the well-being and needs of present and future generations, including by increasing and improving the capacity and delivery of the EN over time;

d) recognises and provides for the role of the EN in achieving New Zealand’s emissions reduction and renewable energy targets, and associated commitments in any relevant plan prepared under the Climate Change Response Act 2002;

e) manages adverse effects on the environment in a proportionate and cost-effective way; and

f) protects the EN from the adverse effects of other activities.

  • Amend Policy 1 to strengthen the requirements for decision makers to consider the national significance of the entire electricity network an enable the full range of national, regional and local benefits.
  • Insert new policies or amend existing policies to:
    • recognise the specific technical, operational and functional needs of the electricity network, incorporating some of the current NPS-ET preamble into clear policy direction (P2 - Operational need or functional need for EN activities to be in particular locations and environments)
    • new policies to support the operational and functional needs of the electricity network, route selection processes and management of environmental interests ((P4 - Identifying the location for EN activities and managing adverse effects through the route, site, and method selection process), (P5 - General considerations when considering and managing the environmental effects of EN activities), (P6 - Enabling routine EN activities), (P7 - EN development and non-routine activities), (P8 - Reducing existing adverse effects of EN assets when considering upgrades), (P9 - EN activities within urban environments and servicing new development);
  • Add a new policy on recognising and providing for Māori interests in decision making (P3);
  • Include an amended policy to provide greater protection of the electricity network (P10 - Managing the effects of third parties on the electricity network), (P11 - Long-term strategic planning for the EN);
  • Include an update to the electric and magnetic fields international standard (1998) that’s currently part of the NPS-ET (and to replace it with a reference to the 2010 guidelines in the NPS-EN) (P12 - Electric and magnetic fields); and
  • Include 21 new and amended definitions to support the proposed policies, which align with the amended NES.

Changes are also proposed to amend the existing National Environmental Standards for Electricity Transmission Activities (NESETA) to respond to the expanded scope of the NPS-EN and include new provisions to improve consistency with how Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure is funded. The NESETA will also be renamed to the National Environment Standards for Electricity Network Activities (NES-ENA).

What you need to know about the key changes to the NPS-ETA and NPS-ENA. It will:

  • enable more routine work on the electricity transmission network, in all environments;
  • introduce new rules to establish the National Grid Yard and Subdivision Corridor to protect the transmission network;
  • introduce new permitted activity rules for the distribution network and for EV charging infrastructure; and
  • include 41 new and amended definitions to support the interpretation of the proposed NPS-EN policies; and deletion of nine existing definitions.

Changes to the National Policy Statement for Renewable Electricity Generation

There are a broad range of changes proposed to the National Policy Statement for Renewable Electricity Generation (NPS-REG) that are intended to strengthen the directiveness of the NPS-REG polices so that decision-makers considering consent applications will be required to give greater weight to the NPS policies than restrictive policies in local planning instruments.

What you need to know about the key changes to the NPS-REG. It will:

  • change the objective of the NPS-REG to:

Renewable electricity generated in New Zealand:

a) increases in a rate and manner necessary to support the achievement of New Zealand’s emission reduction and energy targets and associated plans under the Climate Change Response Act 2002;
b) provides greater resilience to disruptions to electricity supply;
c) provides for the social, economic and cultural well-being of people and communities, and for their health and safety; while managing the adverse effects of REG activities

  • amend the existing policies A, B, C1, D and F to be more directive in order to enable the proposed objective, recognise that decreases and increases in generation output have an impact on meeting New Zealand's REG, emission reduction and energy targets, clarify the meaning of functional need and operational need in relation to the location of REG; to strengthen the requirement to protect REG assets from reverse sensitive effects and to better enable effective and efficient consenting, operation, maintenance and upgrading of small and community scale activities.
  • insert new policies to better enable REG (P2) and protect existing REG assets (P3 and P4) while managing effects on the environment;\.
  • insert a new policy (P1) to recognise and provide for Māori interests in REG activities through decision making.
  • to insert new implementation measures, which includes that the provisions of the NPS-REG must be had regard to in decision making on resource consents and notices of requirement from day 1, but it is not proposed to require local authorities to change their regional policy statements or plans within a fixed time frame. Instead, the general RMA requirements for planning documents to give effect to national direction will continue to apply and may be triggered in instances where a local authority undertakes a plan change or processes a private plan change request, or for changes to a regional policy statement.
  • include 18 new and amended definitions to support the proposed policies.

 

Package 2: Primary sector

Changes to National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land

A range of changes to the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL) are proposed.

What you need to know:

  • As expected, the proposal includes that class LUC 3 land will be removed from NPS-HPL restrictions.
  • It provides for new special agricultural areas (SAA), intended to recognise that some areas important for primary production may be compromised by the removal of LUC 3
  • Depending on consultation, further amendments to how HPL is defined may be considered
  • Changes to the timeframes for mapping HPL in regional policy statements to either extend the timeframes to 2027 or 2028 or suspend mapping requirements until further direction is provided in the replacement resource management system.

Changes to Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry) Regulations 2017

A range of amendments to the National Environmental Standards for Commercial Forestry (NES-CF) are proposed.

What you need to know:

  • Amend regulation 6(1)(a) (circumstances in which a rule in a plan may be more stringent than the NES-CF) to be more specific about the criteria for how councils can impose stricter rules. The intent is to enable councils to consider making a rule in a plan more stringent only if:
    • it is required to manage the risk of severe erosion from a commercial forestry activity in a defined area that would have significant adverse effects on receiving environments, including the coastal environment, downstream infrastructure and property
    • the risk cannot be managed through the current rules in the NES-CF
    • an underlying risk has been identified within the defined area through mapping at a 1:10,000 scale or using a 1 square metre digital elevation model
  • Repeal regulation 6(4A) which gives councils a separate broad discretion to have more stringent rules to control aspects of afforestation. There would still be an ability for councils to consider making a more stringent rule under proposed amended regulation 6(1)(a) if the requisite requirements were met.
  • Amend regulation 69 to require a slash mobilisation risk assessment (SMRA) for all forest harvests as part of the existing harvest management plan, and/or amend regulation 69(5) which applies to orange and red zone land to require all slash above an identified size to be removed from the forest cutover. A draft SMRA template is included to test the concept and proposed criteria. The intent of the proposed changes is that an SMRA would identify whether further slash management actions would be required based on risk:
    • where the risk of slash mobilisation is assessed as low, no further action will be required to manage slash on the cutover
    • where slash mobilisation risk is assessed as not low but the risks can be readily managed through accepted forestry practices, those practices will be included in the harvest management plan and only those practices will be needed to manage slash on the cutover
    • where slash mobilisation risk is assessed as high, careful attention to assessing and managing risk will be required, either by removing most slash from the cutover or by mitigations agreed through a resource consent
  • Repeal regulations 10A and 77A (which, respectively, require afforestation and replanting plans) and repeal Schedule 3 (which sets out the requirements for these plans)
  • Remove the undefined term “woody debris” from all forest planning requirements in Schedules 4, 5 and 6
  • Amend wilding tree risk and control regulations 11(4)(b) and 79(5)(b) to simplify wording and link the required activity to the notice requirement
  • Amend regulation 71A(b) to state that low-intensity harvesting is permitted if “any relevant forest planning requirement is complied with”

Changes to National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity

As part of the reform package proposed to better enable quarrying and mining activities, amendments to the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPS-IB) are proposed. These amendments, which are accompanied by amendments to the NPS-FM, NES-FW and NPS-HPL have been proposed to provide consistency as to terminology, gateway tests and consent pathways for mining and quarrying across existing national direction.

The proposal to amend the NPS-IB by making changes to clause 3.11(1)(a)(ii) and (iii) which provides a consenting pathway for mineral and aggregate extraction as follows:

  • In clause 3.11(a)(ii) replace “mineral extraction” with “the extraction of minerals and ancillary activities” and in clause 3.11(a)(iii) replace “aggregate extraction” with “quarrying activities” (to be consistent with the National Planning Standards, NPS-FM and NES-F)
  • removes “could not otherwise be achieved using resources in New Zealand”, from clauses 3.11(1)(a)ii) and (iii) for consistency with the NPS-FM and NES-F
  • removes the requirement for the benefit in clauses 3.11(1)(a)(ii) and (iii) to be “public” (ie, allowing any benefits to be considered); and
  • adds consideration of “regional benefits” to the mining consent pathway in clause 3.11(1)(a)(ii).

The proposal to amend the NPS-FM and NES-F is to amend those documents by:

  • adding “operational need” as a gateway test (to the existing “functional need” test) in wetlands in clauses 3.22(1)(d)(iii) and (e)(iii) of the NPS-FM and regulation 45A(6)(b) and 45D(6)(b) for mining and quarrying, to make the pathways consistent with the other national direction instruments; and

The proposal to amend the NPS-HPL is to:

  • replace “mineral extraction” with “the extraction of minerals and ancillary activities” in clause 3.9(2)(iii) and “aggregate extraction” with “quarrying activities” (to be consistent with the National Planning Standards, NPS-FM and NES-F)
  • amend the test for mineral extraction in clause 3.9(2)(j)(iii) to remove the requirement that the benefits of the activity “could not otherwise be achieved using resources in New Zealand” and replacing with a requirement for proposals that provide a national or regional public benefit; and
  • amend the test for aggregate extraction in clause 3.9(2)(j)(iv) to remove the requirement that the benefits of the activity “could not otherwise be achieved using resources in New Zealand”),

Changes to New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement

A range of amendments to the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) are proposed.

What you need to know:

  • The proposal seeks to better enable priority activities (ie, specified infrastructure, renewable electricity generation, electricity transmission, aquaculture and resource extraction) while still protecting the environment.
  • Policy 6 to be amended to be more directive, and to make it easier to give consent to priority activities in the coastal environment, and to expand the functional need test into a 'functional or operational needs' test
  • There are also changes intended to better enable aquaculture activities, particularly to Policy 8

 

Package 3: Freshwater

The consultation document for Freshwater looks at amendments to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 (NPS-FM) and the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater (NES-F) to 'better reflect the interests of all water users'. The document presents a number of proposals and seeks submissions on those before making final decisions and drafting any amendments.

What you need to know about the key proposals:

  • Whether to replace the NPS-FM’s single objective (clause 2.1 of the NPS-FM, which establishes a hierarchy of obligations) with multiple new objectives. The potential new objective proposed is one that will direct councils to:
    • safeguard the life-supporting capacity of freshwater and the health of people and communities
    • while enabling communities to provide for their social, cultural and economic well-being, including productive economic opportunities.

This objective would not operate as a hierarchy but would require councils to provide for these matters equally within their planning documents.

  • Due to the government's view that the NPS-FM being misinterpreted as requiring water quality and bottom lines to be achieved or complied with immediately, the proposal for consultation is the introduction of a new objective to consider the pace and cost of change, and who bears the cost.
  • New objectives proposed to enable the continued domestic supply of fresh vegetables, and to address water security. See 2.4 and 2.5 of the consultation document for details.
  • The NPS-FM requires freshwater quality to be maintained or improved. Freshwater quality has to be at least maintained everywhere and may need to be improved if it is below a national bottom line or if councils/communities choose to aim for improvement. Targets have to be set at or above the national bottom line or current state. The proposal being consulted on is including the requirement to maintain or improve freshwater quality as a new objective.
  • Rebalancing Te Mana o te Wai. Three options are proposed:
    • Remove hierarchy of obligations and clarify how Te Mana o te Wai applies
    • Reinstate Te Mana o te Wai provisions from 2017
    • Remove Te Mana o te Wai provisions
  • Whether or not to retain some elements of the National Objectives Framework in the NPS-FM and making it more flexible to implement. This includes:
    • which values should be compulsory to provide for, and which should be optional
    • which attributes and national bottom lines are critical for councils to manage nationally
    • whether to give councils flexibility to deviate from the nationally defined thresholds (including bottom lines) that guide where the environmental limits (targets) are set, and to deviate from the detailed methods for monitoring attributes.
  • The National Objectives Framework in the NPS-FM requires councils and communities to develop a long-term vision and identify the values they want to see provided for. Consultation is seeking input on which values should be compulsory to provide for and which should be optional.
  • Attributes in the National Objectives Framework in the NPS-FM are measurable characteristics (eg, nutrient concentrations) that provide for values (eg, ecosystem health). Councils must at least maintain the health of freshwater. They must improve it if it is below minimum thresholds called “national bottom lines”, or where councils/communities choose to aim for improvement. The proposal is seeking input on which attributes and national bottom lines are critical for councils to manage nationally.
  • Whether to give councils flexibility to deviate from:
    • nationally defined thresholds (including bottom lines) that guide where the environmental limits (targets) are set
    • detailed methods for monitoring attributes
  • Whether national bottom lines are required at all, or if instead councils should determine where limits are set based on community input.
  • Whether to introduce a new requirement in the NPS-FM for source water risk management areas to be mapped.
  • The NPS-FM and NES-F provide national direction and rules about how wetlands should be managed (together referred to as the wetland regulations). The proposal is looking at:
    • defining induced wetlands and removing the pasture exclusion from the definition of a “natural inland wetland”.
    • Defining “wetland construction”.
    • creating a new permitted activity standard (and potentially a consenting pathway if needed) for farming activities that are unlikely to have an adverse effect on a wetland – for example, fencing and irrigation.
    • creating a new permitted activity standard for activities related to wetland construction, as well as a consenting pathway.
    • further encouraging wetland construction and edge-of-field mitigations through a new objective and/or policy in the NPS-FM.
    • removing the requirement for councils to map natural inland wetlands within 10 years (currently in clause 3.23 of the NPS-FM).
  • Whether to simplify fish passage regulations in the NES-F or retain the current regulations.
  • Options to improve the NES-F rules for synthetic nitrogen fertiliser – 3 options are proposed:
    • whether to align the reporting date in the NES-F with the farming calendar.
    • whether to repeal the requirement for dairy farms to provide receipts for purchases of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser.
    • whether to repeal the requirement for farmers to use less than 190 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare per year on the grazed area of their farms

The document notes that the Government has already paused regional councils’ ability to notify freshwater planning instruments while it is working through changes to national direction and a significant reform programme to replace the RMA. Feedback is also sought on whether any of the changes proposed in the discussion document should be implemented now, or if they should instead be incorporated into or made under the upcoming replacement legislation for the RMA.

 

Conclusion

Consultation on these three packages will run from 29 May 2025 until 11.59pm on 27 July 2025. Watch this space as our team will provide more details as they become available.

If you would like to discuss how the national direction reform will impact you, please contact your usual DLA Piper advisor.


1 Building and Construction (Small Stand-alone Dwellings) Amendment Bill.

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